Wages of Sin

Conrad Astym

Knight-cum-politician

Description:

Conrad is characterized by his tall stature, salt-and-pepper close-cropped hair, and the fine webbing of scars covering his visible flesh. Outwardly Conrad appears gruff, efficient, and implacable, but those who consider themselves lucky enough to be apart of Conrad’s inner circle (his close friends, advisors, house-hold staff, and a coterie of young men whom Conrad has adopted) see him has a gentle and old soul, slow to anger, quiet, thoughtful, and kind. His stubbornness and implacability, however, still stand.

HP: 95+
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Full Plate: ; with shield: )

Longsword

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Diplomacy: History: Nobility: Religion: Sense Motive:

Bio:

Conrad was born the only child of an old and established family of the City of Absalom. While not birthed in Absalom proper – he was born at sea while his mother and father, the late Lord and Lady Astym, returned from a trade negotiation with the noble houses of Cassomir – Conrad has lived his life in the service of Absalom’s Primarch.

His childhood was uneventful. After attaining his majority, Conrad was apprenticed to a man-at-arms of house Geralt, a lesser house whose patriarch sat on the Council of Primarch with Conrad’s father. The young Lord Astym was quick to prove his value to the Geralt family when, during a pirate raid on the Geralt family coastal estate, Conrad prevented the abduction of the entirety of the Geralt blood-line. Despite his age, his acumen with sword, mace, hammer, and shield became renowned. It is also here that it is rumored Astym found his faith in the Goddess Iomedae.

Shortly after fulfilling his duties to the Geralt’s, the young Lord Astym apprenticed under the tutelage of the Knight Paladins of the Temple of Iomedae. Little is known about Conrad’s trials during the years he spent in their employ. However, it is known that Conrad abstained from taking the Rites of The Inheritor, as he had earned, and instead returned home upon hearing of the deaths of his parents.

The now Lord Astym, through astute and efficient investment of the family wealth, significantly increased the Astym holdings, of which was a dilapidated keep on the over-land trade route between Diobel and Absalom. It was this purchase that would prove a marker in Astym’s life.

Shortly after Conrad took ownership of the Keep by the River it was besieged by a force of pirates and smugglers who would rather see the Keep stay unoccupied and crumbling, then become an impediment to their operations between Diobel and Absalom. It was also rumored that the pirates included those whose kidnappings were interrupted at the Geralt estate.

The Keep by the River was assaulted smartly and its defenses overrun quickly. Few of the Astym household guard survived and many of the staff were taken, presumably as spoils or to be sold into bondage.

Conrad, who was in Absalom at the time, asked the Primarch for leave to retaliate against pirates. On the the affirmation of the Primarch, Conrad rallied a few of the lesser houses to his cause and abandoned Absalom for the Keep by the River with majority of his remaining staff and men-at-arms in tow, as well as two score rangers from House Geralt and the Lord Geralt’s oldest son, Toray, who was apprenticed to Conrad.

After obtaining the necessary intelligence, the Primarch ordered Conrad to dispatch his band to a small hamlet on the northern coast of Osirian, not far from Totra.

Little is known about the mission, or its occasion, but Conrad was the only one to survive. Three years after leaving Diobel, Conrad returned alone, quieter, less rash, and more indomitable of will than when he left.

The Lord Astym now sits atop one of the Ruling Councils of Absalom, the Council of Iomedae. While not an overtly religious person, and seemingly possessed of little divine power, Conrad does consider himself a righteous man, and enjoys a level of participation in Council rule and politics few laymen attain.